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Feschuk: Belak silently suffered from depression, sources say

As teammates and friends remembered Wade Belak as a dressing room joker who never seemed to have a bad day, two sources who knew Belak, the former Leafs enforcer who committed suicide Wednesday at age 35, said the retired tough guy had suffered from depression.

The sources, who asked not to be identified, said Thursday that Belak took medication to treat his mental illness but had been loath to speak about it.

A funeral service for Wade Belak is planned for Sunday in Nashville. (Christian Petersen / GETTY IMAGES)

On a day when Belak’s widow, Jennifer, released a statement in which she asked “that everyone remember Wade’s infectious sense of humour, his caring spirit and the joy he brought to his friends, family and fans,” the search for answers continued. The coroner’s office, investigating the death, said an autopsy has been conducted and the results are awaited.

“We’re not intending to release the cause or manner of death to the public,” said Dr. Dan Cass, regional supervising coroner for Toronto-West.

The NHL and its players’ association, with Belak the third NHL enforcer to die tragically in the past four months, issued a joint statement underlining their commitment to “examining, in detail, the factors that may have contributed to these events, and to determining whether concrete steps can be taken to enhance player welfare.”

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With a private funeral service planned for Sunday in Nashville, one of Belak’s friends spoke specifically about enhancing the welfare of those who plumb the depths.

“What we can learn from this is that, if you suffer from depression, even though you may go for help and you may be on medication and you may have a psychiatrist, you need to share the depth of your pain with the people around you,” Michael Landsberg, the host of TSN’s Off the Record, who had known Belak for most of a decade, said in an interview.

“Because if he was walking around saying, ‘I’m feeling so awful I could take my life,’ if he said that to his wife, she would never have let him come (to Toronto).”

As post-playing-career transitions go, Belak’s appeared as enviable as they come. Belak, who lived in Nashville with Jennifer and their two young daughters Andie and Alex, was in Toronto to perform on Battle of the Blades, the CBC show wherein hockey players try their hand at figure skating.

Come autumn, he was to begin work as a rinkside reporter on Predators broadcasts. Inquiries for his on-camera services had become so commonplace that Belak had hired an agent to handle negotiations.

“He had everything lined up for postretirement, more than any other player out there that you can think of,” said Kevin Wilson, a Predators spokesman who also considered Belak a friend.

Speaking for the Predators, Belak’s last NHL team in a career that spanned 14 seasons, Wilson cited privacy concerns while declining comment on Belak’s health. Belak’s father, Lionel Aadland, told various news outlets that his son had shown no indication of distress. Mark Napier, the executive director of the NHL’s alumni association, which frequently arranges and pays for medical treatment for ex-NHLers, said that to his knowledge, Belak, who played his last game in the league in January, hadn’t asked for help.

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“From our standpoint, we never heard anything at all that he might have some problems,” said Napier. “I don’t want to speculate (on Belak’s struggles), and it’s just kind of mind-numbing right now. But unless guys come forward and let us know, or someone in their families lets us know they’re in need of help, there’s not a lot you can do about it.

“The main thing is to just try to educate players that we are here, that if they do need to reach out to someone, the alumni association is here for them.”

There were suggestions on Thursday that not everyone in the hockey community has felt supported in life outside the big league.

Brent Sopel, the ex-NHL defenceman who now plays in Russia, posted a dim view of post-NHL existence on Twitter: “It’s true when you’re gone from the NHL it’s like you never played. We’re all just pieces of meat.”

Jarkko Ruutu, an NHL free agent, wrote on Twitter: “I feel that teams as employers should act instead of just releasing statements. Real action is required. (The) drop from playing in the NHL to retiring is HUGE. Most of the players have trouble dealing with it. This needs to be taken seriously.”

Landsberg, speaking over phone from New York on Thursday, said that given what he knew of Belak’s life, Belak’s death “still doesn’t make sense . . . As I try to unravel it, knowing all that I know, I can’t.”

The TSN host spoke of how he considered Belak a “pseudo family member”; of how he met both Wade and Jennifer, the latter a former actress who had played a recurring role on TV’s Saved by the Bell, when they were guests on his show; of how Belak, during his seven-season stint with the Leafs, had been a frequent dinner guest at the home Landsberg shares with his wife and two children.

“Of all the guys I’ve met through the show, as far as pro athletes go, he would be far and away my closest friend,” he said.

The TV host and Belak, it turns out, had more in common than a love of sports. Landsberg has talked publicly of his own battles with depression, from which he has occasionally suffered since 1997. But while Landsberg has often aired details of his own struggle on national TV — in 2009, he memorably compared notes on TSN with former Montreal Canadiens all-star Stephane Richer, who has also fought the disease — Belak was apparently less comfortable sharing his plight.

As Paul Dennis, the Maple Leafs’ sports psychologist during Belak’s tenure with the club, told CBC News Network on Thursday: “I think there is this sport culture that young athletes learn at a very young age to suppress emotions. And if you demonstrate (that) you might be vulnerable or weak mentally . . . the athletes may think, ‘They want me so I’ll keep it to myself.’

“I’m not saying that’s what happened with Wade but from my experience from dealing with other athletes, that’s the mindset.”

Landsberg, a spokesperson for mental-health advocacy groups, said “80 per cent of men will never get appropriate care for their depression. We know that men are embarrassed and the macho side of them prevents them from sharing this.”

Asked if he and Belak had discussed Belak’s pain, Landsberg said he didn’t feel right sharing the substance of their private conversations. But he said he had been in contact with Belak as recently as Tuesday, and that he “could not have been more shocked” at the news of his demise.

“I can’t, for the life of me, imagine how the guy I’d been communicating with could get to the point where he said, ‘I feel too horrible to go on. (Death) has got to be better than living another second.’ I can’t comprehend that process,” Landsberg said.

“Knowing Wade, in my mind, he had a handle on anything that was challenging him. I can’t tell you if that was his ability to hide the challenges he had, or if that was the real, genuine Wade Belak, who had faced all of his challenges and had beaten them. I don’t know. I don’t know if anybody knows.”

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